Italian Cream Cake

I made this cake for Christmas (I think?  Maybe it was Thanksgiving.)  Anyway, I made it because it's my dad's favorite cake.  It turned out to be a really good recipe so I thought I would share! 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 egg whites
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (3.5 ounce) package flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans
•  
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease three 9 inch, round cake pans. Combine soda and buttermilk, and let stand a few minutes.
2. In a large bowl, cream sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup oil and shortening. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix buttermilk mixture alternately with flour into creamed mixture. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla.
3. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain. Gently stir in 1 cup pecans and coconut.
4. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
5. To make the Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat together cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and confectioners' sugar. Stir in 1 cup chopped pecans. Frost and fill cooled cake with cream cheese frosting.

On an added note, I also tried these cupcakes, thinking they would be so great.  I made them for a baked goods auction at church for the senior high mission trip, mostly because of the amount of butter in them... and because I wanted to make them but knew we didn't need that many cupcakes! :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

These were not as good as expected.. and to be honest, after working on them for so long, I just didn't really feel much like eating them.  They were hard work, even with J helping me make them. The people who bought them at the bake sale really liked them, though, so maybe they're more fun to eat if you don't have to do the labor... and if you don't know that there are 6 sticks of butter in the recipe!  Yikes!  

J's disdain at how much work these were! :)

Pre-frosting and cookie dough filling

 But all in all, it's good that we made them!  The youth made $2727 toward their summer trip!  Yay!